Sherdog’s Top 10: Officiating Blunders

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3. Mario Yamasaki Screws Over Erick Silva Against Carlo Prater

It happened very fast -- so fast that referee Mario Yamasaki never had a chance to stop the fight to issue any warnings whatsoever, but he still wound up disqualifying Erick Silva anyway. Still, the UFC 142 battle between Silva and Carlo Prater shouldn’t have ended the way it did, because the wrong guy won. Prater was knocked senseless, but he somehow was the victim of a number of illegal blows, even though 99 percent of the punches he absorbed were anything but.

When the fighters came together, Silva landed a knee to the chest and began unloading a heaping helping of hammer fists to Prater’s noggin. From standing to while they were on their way to the ground and then on the mat, Silva unloaded dozens of fists to the side of Prater’s melon. Prater was eventually laid out and when Yamasaki stepped in, it appeared as though Silva had won via TKO.

That was not the case.

Prater was announced as the victor via disqualification, and even though repeated replays -- even with Joe Rogan walking through the replays with Yamasaki -- the veteran official stood by his decision. The win was snatched right from Silva and the verdict was never overturned.

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